Alternate day fasting

Alternate-day fasting (ADF) is a type of intermittent fasting. The idea is to skip or heavily restrict eating every other day. In this way, you “alternate” the days you eat, hence the name!

The most popular way of doing ADF is the “Every other day diet” which was popularized by Dr. Krista Varady, who is a prominent researcher on alternate day fasting. 1, 2.

Another popular method is “modified alternate-day fasting” (MADF). In this modified diet, you can eat up to 500 calories on fasting days, which makes the fast a lot easier.

If you read this and thought that it sounded like a more extreme version of the 5:2 diet, you would be correct! Alternate day fasting is therefore considered an advanced form of intermittent fasting. We advise beginners who are interested in ADF to try out 5:2 first and then try out alternate day fasting if they enjoy it or have success with it.

ADF and your health

ADF has a range of impacts on your health. In this part of the article, we have compiled a list of the most remarkable changes that practicing ADF can bring.

Benefits of ADF

Alternate-day fasting is a type of intermittent fasting, and therefore comes with a range of positive benefits like:

• Weight loss
• Improved body composition
• Lowering type-2 diabetes symptoms
• Increased levels of HGH
• Healthier heart

We are going to go over these benefits in detail starting with.

Promoting weight-loss

If you decide to try out Alternate-day fasting wanting to lose weight, you can rest easy, because it has been proven scientifically proven to help. Studies have shown that overweight adults can expect to lose 3-8% of their body weight over a 2-12 week period. This amount of weight loss is roughly similar to the results you get from a caloric restriction diet.

In addition to losing weight in general, ADF is effective at reducing the amount of harmful belly fat that you have. Harmful belly fat is linked to an increased risk of type-2 diabetes, as well as reducing inflammation.

If you want to speed up the weight loss with ADF, then combining it with exercise can bring about greater results, faster.

Studies have shown ADF to be just as effective as calorie reduction, and just as safe. It might even come with some benefits, like increased reduction of belly fat over. Therefore ADF is a good alternative to those who prefer something other than traditional caloric reduction.

Improved body composition

The reports of the changes to body composition when you perform ADF are mixed. The good news is, that all of them are positive – the questions often raised by scientists is: Is it more healthy, or comes with more benefits than traditional caloric reduction?

Studies that look into the amount of weight lost point to alternate-day fasting is just as effective as caloric reduction. 3 1

The same goes for studies that look into the retention of muscle mass, where caloric reduction and ADF having equal results.

Alternate-day fasting and diabetes

Type-2 diabetes is all too common, with more than 34 million Americans living with it.

The key to managing the condition is healthy living, and this is where ADF can bring great benefits.

Alternate day fasting has shown to be effective in combatting type-2 diabetes. First off, losing weight is already a good way to improve the condition, but ADF brings other benefits as well.

One of the primary benefits is that ADF helps prevent falling insulin levels. Insulin spikes or throughs can lead to low energy, mood swings, or fatigue, and is one of the most distressing parts of having the condition.

It has been shown in some studies that ADF is more effective than caloric reduction at managing falling insulin levels. However, the evidence isn’t clear, as other studies disagree with this. 4

Even if there isn’t enough scientific evidence to declare ADF to be better than caloric restriction, it is still a safe and healthy choice.

Alternate-day fasting and heart health

Alternate day fasting is very beneficial to your heart. Practicing ADF can lead to a range of beneficial improvements in your body that help strengthen your most important muscle.

Many of the benefits to your heart are actually a result of the other benefits that we have discussed so far, but here are some of the pros that practicing ADF has on your heart.

• Decreased weight
• Decrease in blood pressure
• Lowering bad cholesterol (LDL)
• Increased good cholesterol (HDL)
• Lower overall cholesterol
• Healthier proportion of chemicals in your blood (LDL and HDL particle sizes)

The decreases in blood pressure, as well as the improved composition of cholesterol in your blood, is generally a result of reduced weight (Which ADF can help you to achieve)

ADF and HGH

Intermittent fasting, and therefore also ADF, have been shown to promote the production of Human Growth Hormone.

Human growth hormone is released by your pituitary glands, and it helps regulate a wide range of your bodily functions. Intermittent fasting, in particular 24-hour fasting, has been shown to increase the levels of HGH in the blood. x

Alternate day fasting and starvation mode

This one benefit might be the most attractive part about ADF.

Have you ever cut down on calories, felt awful as a result, but then actually NOT lost much weight at all? If so, then you have probably had a case of adaptive thermogenesis, commonly known as “starvation mode”.

In starvation mode, your body preserves the energy that you actually want to lose. This results in you burning way fewer calories and is believed to happen as a natural defense mechanism against starving. 5

Here’s the good part: ADF does NOT seem to trigger starvation mode. In a 2016 study, researchers compared the change in resting metabolic rate in ADF and caloric restriction. The results showed a massive difference between the two, where caloric restriction showed a reduction in metabolic rate of 6%. ADF only decreased resting metabolic rate by 1%.

This change also persists, as the study contacted the participants again half a year later. Here the resting metabolic rate for the caloric restriction was 4,5% lower, and for ADF it was 1,8% lower.

What this means in practice, is that if you choose ADF over caloric restriction, you are much less likely to hit a “wall” in regards to your weight loss.

Getting started with Alternate-day fasting

As we said at the start, if you want to try out Alternate-day fasting, we recommend starting with 5:2 first. This is because 5:2 has many similarities to Alternate-day fasting, with many of the same benefits as well. However, starting off with an easier version it will be easier to tell if this method of fasting is a good fit for you, and it might reduce potential side effects of fasting.

With that said, here is our guide to getting started with alternate-day fasting, the right way.

What to eat and drink?

As an intermittent fast, there are no real rules for what you can and cannot eat on fasting, or non-fasting days. You can therefore eat whatever you like, but even so, we still recommend sticking to healthy foods, especially if your goal is to lose weight. We recommend high-protein, low-calorie foods.

To combat the hunger, while keeping the fast intact, you should consume low-carb or calorie-free drinks on fasting days. Drinks like: Coffee, tea, and water are all great and you can drink as much of them as you want.

Because you want to keep under the 500 calorie limit (for MADF), we have made some recommendations for meals you can eat:

• Yoghurt
• Nuts and seeds
• Soup
• Fish or other lean meat
• Salads and vegetables

Staying safe with ADF

Overall, ADF is a safe and beneficial form of dieting for most people. It can help you lose weight, and stay slim, as well as give you a range of positive health benefits.

However, ADF is not for all types of people. If you are in any of these categories Alternate-day fasting is NOT safe.

• Pregnant women
• Children
• Suffering from an eating disorder, or is severely underweight

That said, for most people, ADF is a safe form of intermittent fasting, which studies have shown helps to decrease binge-eating, which can help people suffering from depression.

If you are in doubt, you should consult your local health care provider or physician.